Other People’s Reads

It wouldn’t be a round-up post without them. However, since I scour people’s archives on a regular basis, these may not even be from the right time period…

First Impressions of Winter 2019 Animeby AJ (The Anointed Geek) – As I’m typing this up, there’s already more than 30 eligible submissions for the Showcase, so my compromise was putting some anime-related posts here. Now, this may be a simple first impressions post, but the fact AJ gave some of these anime a fair shake when they normally wouldn’t get much treatment at all is enough to give it some value.

How Original Are We As Bloggers?by Ari from The Romance Corner – That disclaimer doesn’t sit up there for nothing – while I was looking at Showcase entries, I also dug into their archives if I found them interesting enough. This post is coloured by this blogger’s book blogging, but I still find it relevant enough that I think it’ll be reassuring to at least someone out there. (Also, I’ve found book bloggers tend to have really pretty themes/formatting in comparison to other types of bloggers…and I don’t really know why…)

Manga Glimpse – The Water Dragon’s Bride by HermitOdysseus – After staring longingly at new manga releases wherever I can, I keep seeing the same few titles appealing to me. In the shoujo category, one of them is The Water Dragon’s Bride, which I think I did see in a bookstore…before it shut down due to renovations and got replaced by other manga. So long story short: I gotta keep myself salty for a day where I can read it.

Saiyuki: Four Guys and a Dragon-Carby Ennadune (Friend of Fiction) – As much as I fell for the atmosphere of Saiyuki with Reload Blast, I do admit the plot is repetitive…but I always like to go into the hows and not the whys. Luckily, Ennadune’s got me covered on that front.

Neon Genesis Evangelion – Episode 6by Bobduh (Nick Creamer) at Wrong Every Time – As you may know, I idolise the writings of Nick when it comes to The Art of Criticism and I found a particularly worthy one here. Admittedly, the guy was paid to do this post, but this is more a tier of “what to aspire towards” rather than “we’re all just amateurs eking out a presence in the internet”.

[Feature] Fruits Basket‘s Tohru Honda and the Path to Self-Acceptance by Ariel French for Anime Feminist – On that note, I feel like Fruits Basket is suddenly a new hot topic now that the anime is going to be back in a few months. Combine that nostalgia with a reminder of the pre-anime bubble era in seeing snippets of the manga, plus its containing the message incorporated into two of my OWLS posts, and we have a winner (even though, again, it’s likely this writer was paid).

My Hero Academia Season 2 Part 2 Spoiler-Free Reviewby Matt in the Hat – This post is a bit simplistic in comparison to its competition (hence why it didn’t make the cut as a Showcase piece), but it can’t be ignored that as a review it competently does its job.

Golden Kamuy: Uniquely Larger than Life by Dewbond from Shallow Dives in Anime – Golden Kamuy got a good representation from the Crunchyroll Award nominations…but basically nowhere else. Sure, I don’t think it the best of 2018, but it’s pretty darn close does it justice…not to mention CGI bears shouldn’t be the be all and end all for a show!

Listening to Your Own Judgement – Anime Hypeby LitaKino – I know that me and hype don’t get along, so that’s why, in the midst of Mob Psycho 100 and Promised Neverland craziness, I’ll include this reminder that you shouldn’t feel obligated to watch what everyone else is watching if you have no enjoyment in it yourself.

My Roommate is a Cat First Impressions by Janette – I’m having a bunch of fun (and getting punched in the gut with feels) when it comes to this wholesome kitty anime. That said, the post itself is no slouch, either – it’s slightly inaccurate due to developments revealed in the 5th episode, but otherwise is able to sell the show’s charm without losing a personal or casual touch.

ReLIFE Manga – High School Revisited by foomafoo at Temporal Vortex – Ah, ReLIFE. Reading about it takes me back to when I first found it on Comico. Notably, this post is dated before the anime and so details events that happen within it, but it’s a much deeper read into the chosen work than most people tend to do on the interwebs.

Book Seller Honda-san: Educational and Funnyby Scott at Mechanical Anime Reviews – There are certain things you can’t discuss because they’re just so relatable, they end up making you think you divulge too much about yourself. Honda-san was one of those, due to all that volunteer and paid work I’ve done with books…and so, I get other people to discuss them for me by picking them for these round-up posts.

Hinamatsuri is (not) what it sets out to be by blautoothdmand – This thing is basically an essay by itself, what with the idea of continuity feeding back into itself. However, what sets it apart is the fact its contention is “the new is old and the old is new, but the truth is that doesn’t matter” using the storylines of Hinamatsuri‘s Hina, Anzu and Hitomi. It’s a very hard act to follow, even including the pieces which people were paid to do, which is why I’ve put it last in this round-up.

Other Stuff

Rediscovering my Roots – No, this is not about my ancestry. It’s about digging into my childhood memories of Sailor Moon.

Crunchyroll Clean Out – Using the somewhat recent (as of the post) removals of Hanasaku Iroha and Tono to Issho, I unwrap the positives and negatives of sudden “anime XYZ is leaving the vault!” announcements.

Manga Plus…What? – Manga Plus is that one website Shueisha suddenly decided to launch with access to every chapter you can get on Viz, backlog titles (for up to 7 weeks) and then some random titles you’ve never heard of, because they hail from Shonen Jump+. I discuss some of the “random titles you’ve never heard of” here.

Coming up next…

I kept it secret last month because I wanted to surprise everyone, but I’m hosting the Showcase. Submissions end in 10 days, so if you haven’t submitted something and you want to, check here for details. However, due to the Showcase I left my usual posts, this one included, to the last minute…which doesn’t sound like me at all…

It’s back to the daily grind with March, although the removal of IT in the last few months mean I have more hours to blog and watch anime…plus more hours to throw into resume-strengthening and other “adulting things”, which is what I really should be doing with that time. As of this post though, I’m more behind than usual on watching shows because I’m a few episodes short of finishing Classicaloid‘s 2nd season, plus I was dealing with phone problems and studying up on how to drive. (Please don’t go trusting me with your car yet, people…this is only the beginning for me.)

The observation about book bloggers being fancy is so true… I think book, lifestyle, and recipe blogs tend to follow established formats both visually and content-wise because those are the most common blogs here. Whereas we anibloggers get to invent our own thing and stick to it.

Hataraku Maou-sama was one of my favourites from the period where I was going down the anime rabbithole and the fact it’s part of my physical collection only strengthens my love for it…so yep. Best of luck winning your wife over with it!

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